HBM Contributers

February 23, 2012

Issue 6 Cover Art and The Designer

A picture is worth 1000 words, or in this case 50000, which
is about how many are between the cover pages of Issue 6, Settler 26 –not to
take away from the power of artful writing and a great imagination.

A cover is the first thing we see on a book and for many
books it is also the last thing we see. Like it or not a perfect story can sit
on a shelf gathering dust if it doesn’t draw us in, and fast.

Our cover was done this time byAnnabelle Métayer (click on her name). Her range as an artist is incredible. We think
she did a fantastic job and the feedback we have had confirms it. It represents
for us what we think we are about. It harnesses the energy, creativity and
Here-Be-Monsters-twist.

How she managed to draw this out of us over several days
while Alex, Vincent and I went back and forth about what a good title should
contain, how long it should be and which of us was smarter (amongst much other
totally unrelated diatribe) is still a mystery. I did ask. It sounded to me
like… well… intuition. We are proud of the fact that we allow creative freedom, so we never said we want... X with X riding X while X does X.

Sure she used our google doc link of absurd key words and
strange to ridiculous title ideas, and we had chatted over food and beverage,
but really… intuition, both professional and artistic.
If it wasn’t intuition then it was one of only two other possible (probable?) options:
magic or time travel.

We really think it hits the nail on the head, and much more aptly than that saying. So check out her work, or better yet have her create for you, she's a pro graphic designer and illustrator. To contact go here: Annabelle Métayer.